Mechanisms of Near-Peer Learning in a Longitudinal Clerkship: A Grounded Theory Study.

PURPOSE: Many medical schools incorporate longitudinal clerkships, which promote continuity and may offer early clinical exposure during the preclinical curriculum. However, the mechanisms of near-peer learning and how it contributes to the development of clinical skills in longitudinal clinical experiences are less clear. The authors explored how peer-to-peer interactions among medical students influenced their developmental trajectories from nascent clinicians to more seasoned practitioners capable of juggling dual roles of clinical care and clinical supervision within longitudinal clerkships. METHOD: The Education-Centered Medical Home (ECMH) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is a longitudinal clerkship that represents an ideal setting to explore peer learning. At ECMH continuity is established across all 4 years of medical school among small groups of students from each year, a preceptor, and a panel of outpatients. The authors conducted 6 focus groups and 9 individual interviews between March 2021 and February 2023 with medical students from all years. Using constructivist grounded theory, the authors collected and analyzed data iteratively using constant comparison to identify themes and explore their relationships. RESULTS: Within ECMH, peer relationships fostered an informal learning culture that enabled meaningful peer interactions while reinforcing the established culture. The authors identified 3 essential learning practices between senior and junior medical students: preparing for patient encounters, shifting roles dynamically during the joint encounter, and debriefing encounters afterwards. These practices strengthened learning relationships and supported students' developmental trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: Longitudinal peer learning relationships enabled meaningful peer interaction that influenced medical students' clinical development and capability for clinical supervision. Mutual trust, familiarity, and continuity facilitate targeted feedback practices and growth at the edge of junior students' capabilities. Optimizing this peer learning environment and seeking new opportunities to use longitudinal peer learning in clinical environments could promote psychological safety and professional identity formation for medical students.

Current Use of Simulation in Canadian Cardiology Residency Programs: Painting the Landscape to Better Visualize the Future.

Simulation-based medical education (SBME) has been proposed as a method to expose cardiology residents to common and uncommon clinical scenarios. This approach aims to develop the core clinical competencies required for practice amidst many constraints, such as reduced training hours, limited patient encounters, and increased healthcare complexity. SBME fits particularly well in the Canadian Competency-by-Design framework, where the emphasis is on measurable competencies and achievement of milestones. This survey-based study aims to outline the current uses of SBME in Canadian cardiology residency programs, explore opportunities for SBME to enhance current approaches and identify barriers to its integration into the curriculum.

Daily handover in surgery: systematic review and a novel taxonomy of interventions and outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Poor-quality handovers lead to adverse outcomes for patients; however, there is a lack of evidence to support safe surgical handovers. This systematic review aims to summarize the interventions available to improve end-of-shift surgical handover. A novel taxonomy of interventions and outcomes and a modified quality assessment tool are also described. METHODS: Ovid MEDLINE®, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases were searched for articles up to April 2023. Comparative studies describing interventions for daily in-hospital surgical handovers between doctors were included. Studies were grouped according to their interventions and outcomes. RESULTS: In total, 6139 citations were retrieved, and 41 studies met the inclusion criteria. The total patient sample sizes in the control and intervention groups were 11 946 and 11 563 patients, respectively. Most studies were pre-/post-intervention cohort studies (92.7%), and most (73.2%) represented level V evidence. The mean quality assessment score was 53.4% (17.1). A taxonomy of handover interventions and outcomes was developed, with interventions including handover tools, process standardization measures, staff education, and the use of mnemonics. More than 25% of studies used a document as the only intervention. Overall, 55 discrete outcomes were assessed in four categories including process (n = 27), staff (n = 14), patient (n = 12) and system-level (n = 2) outcomes. Significant improvements were seen in 51.8%, 78.5%, 58.3% (n = 9761 versus 9312 patients) and 100% of these outcomes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Most publications demonstrate that good-quality surgical handover improves outcomes and many interventions appear to be effective; however, studies are methodologically heterogeneous. These novel taxonomies and quality assessment tool will help standardize future studies.

Developing a clamshell thoracotomy training model to support hybrid teaching in simulation-based education.

OBJECTIVE: Thoracotomy is an acute, time-sensitive procedure. Simulation-based education provides a safe-learning platform to learn these techniques under close supervision. METHODS: We used the spiral model and concepts of functional fidelity to guide the evolutionary design and fabrication of a hybrid thoracotomy simulator. RESULTS: This model simulates a clamshell thoracotomy that physically integrates with bespoke manikins and adds a high-fidelity technical skills element to immersive team-based simulation training. CONCLUSIONS: We describe the creation of a thoracotomy simulation model that allows trainees to practice these techniques in a safe-learning environment.

'They mirror what they see': A constructivist grounded theory study of simulation culture in four professional domains in Ireland.

PURPOSE: In simulation-based education (SBE), educators integrate their professional experiences to prepare learners for real world practice and may embed unproductive stereotypical biases. Although learning culture influences educational practices, the interactions between professional culture and SBE remain less clear. This study explores how professional learning culture informs simulation practices in healthcare, law, teacher training and paramedicine. METHODS: Using constructivist grounded theory, we interviewed 19 educators about their experiences in designing and delivering simulation-based communication training. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively via constant comparison, memo-writing and reflexive analytical discussions to identify themes and explore their relationships. RESULTS: Varied conceptualizations and enactments of SBE contributed to distinct professional learning cultures. We identified a unique 'simulation culture' in each profession, which reflected a hyper-real representation of professional practice shaped by three interrelated elements: purpose and rationale for SBE, professional values and beliefs, and educational customs and techniques. Dynamic simulation cultures created tensions that may help or hinder learning for later interprofessional practice. CONCLUSION: The concept of simulation culture enhances our understanding of SBE. Simulation educators must be mindful of their uni-professional learning culture and its impacts. Sharing knowledge about simulation practices across professional boundaries may enhance interprofessional education and learners' professional practice.

A comparative analysis of student, educator, and simulated parent ratings of video-recorded medical student consultations in pediatrics.

BACKGROUND: Simulation-based education (SBE) affords learners opportunities to develop communication skills, including those related to pediatrics. Feedback is an integral part of SBE, and while much research into feedback from multiple sources exists, the findings are mixed. The aim of this comparative study was to replicate some of this work in a novel area, pediatric medical education, to better understand how multisource feedback (self, educator, and simulated parent) may inform learning and curriculum design. METHODS: During their pediatric rotation, medical students participated in a consultation with a simulated parent, engaged in video-assisted self-reflection, and received feedback from both an educator and the simulated parent through an e-learning platform. The Pediatric Consultation Skills Assessment Tool (PCAT) was used for self-assessment and educator feedback, and the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure was used for simulated parent feedback. RESULTS: Our results showed that high-performing students underrated their performance, and low-performing students overrated their performance. Feedback from multiple sources helps to identify both areas of weakness in student performance and areas of weakness in student self-appraisal. Overall, general areas of weakness identified for the learners related to making contingency plans and providing easy-to-understand explanations for simulated parents. Some simulated parent feedback did not align with educator and student ratings, highlighting the value of including the simulated parent perspective. Our findings question whether a third party can reliably judge the simulated parent's level of understanding. CONCLUSION: Multisource feedback allows students to develop layered insights into their performance and supports self-appraisal. Aggregating feedback through an e-learning platform allows educators to gain greater insights into the strengths and weakness of students and design a more tailored teaching plan to support student needs.

Mapping the Terrain of Faculty Development for Simulation: A Scoping Review.

ABSTRACT: Understanding what interventions and approaches are currently being used to improve the knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of instructors in simulation-based education is an integral step for carving out the future of simulation. The current study is a scoping review on the topic, to uncover what is known about faculty development for simulation-based education.We screened 3259 abstracts and included 35 studies in this scoping review. Our findings reveal a clear image that the landscape of faculty development in simulation is widely diverse, revealing an array of foundations, terrains, and peaks even within the same zone of focus. As the field of faculty development in simulation continues to mature, we would hope that greater continuity and cohesiveness across the literature would continue to grow as well. Recommendations provided here may help provide the pathway toward that aim.

Behavioral sciences applied to acute care teams: a research agenda for the years ahead by a European research network.

BACKGROUND: Multi-disciplinary behavioral research on acute care teams has focused on understanding how teams work and on identifying behaviors characteristic of efficient and effective team performance. We aimed to define important knowledge gaps and establish a research agenda for the years ahead of prioritized research questions in this field of applied health research. METHODS: In the first step, high-priority research questions were generated by a small highly specialized group of 29 experts in the field, recruited from the multinational and multidisciplinary "Behavioral Sciences applied to Acute care teams and Surgery (BSAS)" research network - a cross-European, interdisciplinary network of researchers from social sciences as well as from the medical field committed to understanding the role of behavioral sciences in the context of acute care teams. A consolidated list of 59 research questions was established. In the second step, 19 experts attending the 2020 BSAS annual conference quantitatively rated the importance of each research question based on four criteria - usefulness, answerability, effectiveness, and translation into practice. In the third step, during half a day of the BSAS conference, the same group of 19 experts discussed the prioritization of the research questions in three online focus group meetings and established recommendations. RESULTS: Research priorities identified were categorized into six topics: (1) interventions to improve team process; (2) dealing with and implementing new technologies; (3) understanding and measuring team processes; (4) organizational aspects impacting teamwork; (5) training and health professions education; and (6) organizational and patient safety culture in the healthcare domain. Experts rated the first three topics as particularly relevant in terms of research priorities; the focus groups identified specific research needs within each topic. CONCLUSIONS: Based on research priorities within the BSAS community and the broader field of applied health sciences identified through this work, we advocate for the prioritization for funding in these areas.

Training simulated participants for role portrayal and feedback practices in communication skills training: A BEME scoping review: BEME Guide No. 86.

BACKGROUND: Providing feedback is a key aspect of simulated participants' (SPs) educational work. In teaching contexts, the ability to provide feedback to learners is central to their role. Suboptimal feedback practices may deny learners the valuable feedback they need to learn and improve. This scoping review systematically maps the evidence related to SPs' role as educators and identifies how SPs prepare for their role and feedback practices. METHODS: The authors conducted a scoping review and included a group of international stakeholders with experience and expertise in SP methodology. Five online databases were systematically searched and ERIC, MedEdPortal and MedEdPublish were hand searched to identify relevant studies. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were developed. Data screening and subsequently data charting were performed in pairs. The results of data charting were thematically analysed including categories relating to the Association of SP Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice (SOBP). RESULTS: From 8179 articles identified for the title and abstract screening, 98 studies were included. Studies reported the benefit of SPs' authentic role portrayal and feedback interactions for learners and on the reported learning outcomes. Data was heterogeneous with a notable lack of consistency in the detail regarding the scenario formats for communication skills training interventions, SP characteristics, and approaches to training for feedback and role portrayal. CONCLUSIONS: The published literature has considerable heterogeneity in reporting how SPs are prepared for role portrayal and feedback interactions. Additionally, our work has identified gaps in the implementation of the ASPE SOBP, which promotes effective SP-learner feedback interactions. Further research is required to identify effective applications of SP methodology to prepare SPs for their role as educators.

'How can we help the students learn?' A grounded theory study of simulated participants as educators.

PURPOSE: Despite the demonstrated value of simulated participant (SP) feedback, we are only beginning to understand how to optimize SPs' feedback practices for communication skills and strengthen their role as educators. SPs portray roles and engage in feedback practices to support simulated-based learning for communication skills training. SPs come to their role with diverse experiences, knowledge, and training, such as (a) professional actors, (b) lay people, and (c) health professions educators. This study explored what factors influenced SPs' role as educators, including their preparation, training, and approach to role portrayal and feedback practices and how these aspects were influenced by SPs' backgrounds. METHODS: Using grounded theory methodology, we collected and analysed data iteratively from 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews. We identified key concepts, using constant comparison and by exploring how concepts were related , to develop a conceptual model of SPs as educators. RESULTS: The SP role as educator was shaped by several interrelated dualities which spanned both the SP and learner roles and contributed to the identity formation of both SP and learner: (a) building competence (SP competence as educator and learner competence as healthcare professional), (b) engaging in reflective practice (SPs prompting learner reflection and SPs reflecting on their own role), and (c) establishing a safe space (SP needing to feel safe in their role to create safety to support learner engagement). SPs' backgrounds influenced how they learned to portray roles and how they engaged in feedback practices, both in-action, through in-role prompts and cues, and on-action, through post-scenario feedback discussions. CONCLUSION: Our conceptual model about SPs as educators informs SP selection and training. Further, this model enables practical suggestions for SP educators and faculty who involve SPs in teaching. Enhanced feedback practices have the potential to improve learning from simulated encounters.

Critical design choices in healthcare simulation education: a 4C/ID perspective on design that leads to transfer.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare simulation education often aims to promote transfer of learning: the application of knowledge, skills, and attitudes acquired during simulations to new situations in the workplace. Although achieving transfer is challenging, existing theories and models can provide guidance. RECOMMENDATIONS: This paper provides five general recommendations to design simulations that foster transfer: (1) emphasize whole-task practice, (2) consider a cognitive task analysis, (3) embed simulations within more comprehensive programs, (4) strategically combine and align simulation formats, and (5) optimize cognitive load. We illustrate the application of these five recommendations with a blueprint for an educational program focusing on simulation activities. CONCLUSIONS: More evidence-informed approaches to healthcare simulation might require a paradigm shift. We must accept that a limited number of simulations is not enough to develop complex skills. It requires comprehensive programs that combine simulation sessions with workplace learning.

Transforming Team Culture: A Case Study From Critical Care.

Interprofessional team conflict amplifies division and impedes patient care. Normal differences of opinion escalate to frank conflicts when members respond with indignation or resentment. These behaviors engender a workplace culture that degrades collaborative clinical management and patient safety. We describe the impacts of dysfunctional team culture along with interventions that can lead to more productive teams. In our case study, an interprofessional group of critical care clinicians recognized that their interactions impaired collaborative care and requested support. Two experts, a nurse and a physician, facilitated two 2-h workshops with 18 critical care physicians, nurses, and fellows to begin transforming their dysfunctional unit culture. After establishing psychological safety, facilitators introduced the learning pathways grid to explore (1) how faulty assumptions lead to dysfunctional interactions and suboptimal results and (2) how new assumptions informed by new insights enable teams to redesign their interactions. Through reflection and analysis, clinicians concluded that understanding other clinicians' goals and perspectives benefits patients and families, helps clinicians feel valued, and fosters mutual trust. This exercise supports interprofessional teams to transform dysfunctional interactions by helping team members to develop a mindset of humility and inquiry and to remind themselves about the good intentions in others. To address conflict, we offer a conversational approach grounded in curiosity, respect, and transparency. Ultimately, the most important communication strategy for effective critical care is caring about the perspectives and experiences of other members of the interprofessional team.

A Mixed Methods Study Identifying the Competencies of Health Care Simulation Technicians.

INTRODUCTION: Health care simulation technicians (HSTs), also referred to as simulation operations specialists, are essential to the delivery of simulation-based education. The HST role draws on a broad range of knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies. However, because of the neoteric nature of the HST role and the ambiguity surrounding the core responsibilities of the position, it has proved difficult to identify the competencies required to perform this role successfully. This study aims to identify the knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies required by HSTs. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was used in this study. Data were collected from (1) online searches of HST job descriptions and (2) semistructured interviews about the competencies required by HSTs with 10 HSTs, 10 health care simulation educators, and 10 health care simulation center managers/director. The data from the job descriptions and interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, using a framework method to guide the coding. RESULTS: A total of 59 competencies were identified from the job descriptions and 65 competencies from the interviews. This analysis resulted in the identification of 9 competency domains: 3 knowledge domains (technical, clinical, and pedagogic), 4 skills domains (resourcefulness, pedagogic, team, and technical), and 2 attitudes domains (professional and "can-do" mentality). CONCLUSIONS: The identification of the competencies required by HSTs will support the selection of candidates with the attributes that will allow them to be successful in this role and guide continuous professional development opportunities for current and future HSTs.

Interdisciplinary collaborative working on surgical ward rounds: reality or rhetoric? A systematic review.

Daily surgical ward rounds shape the quality of postoperative care and contribute to positive patient outcomes. Despite their importance, strategies to facilitate and promote deliberate interdisciplinary collaboration within surgical ward rounds have not been comprehensively investigated. This paper systematically reviews the literature to identify what is known from existing publications about interdisciplinary working on surgical ward rounds. Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from database inception until May 2021 for studies involving interdisciplinary surgical ward rounds. Also, journal hand searches were undertaken. All potential abstracts and papers were screened independently by two reviewers to determine inclusion. All included papers were assessed for methodological quality using the accepted quality criteria outlined in the BEME No. 1 guide. A modified Kirkpatrick model was employed to analyze and synthesize the included studies. The search identified 1765 studies. Reviews of 861 abstracts resulted in the retrieval of 124 articles for full-text screening. Thirty-two papers met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The levels of research evidence were low with 11 papers scoring either grade 4 (results are clear and very likely to be true) or grade 5 (results are unequivocal) in accordance with the BEME No. 1 guide. These 11 studies had three foci (1) full teams managing specific medical conditions through deliberate interdisciplinary collaboration on ward rounds (n = 5); (2) suggestions on the best format for interdisciplinary collaboration on ward rounds (n = 3); and, (3) the roles of specific disciplines in a collaborative surgical round (n = 3). Physicians, intensivists, and pediatricians embrace the benefits of interdisciplinary working to facilitate the improvement of communication, collaboration, and patient safety. Yet, persistent hierarchies within surgical wards act as a barrier often preventing allied health professionals from speaking up, thus perpetuating intra disciplinary siloed behaviors. This barrier contributes to a dearth of research evidence to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborative intentionality in surgical ward rounds and surgical education. Given the high-risk nature of surgery, interdisciplinary collaboration is a critical component for patient safety. Our findings serve as a call to action to address the rhetoric of interdisciplinary collaboration on surgical ward rounds. An evidence-base is required to design, educate for and implement interdisciplinary collaborative opportunities in surgical wards so this critical aspect of patient care becomes a reality.

Turning to 'Trusted Others': A Narrative Review of Providing Social Support to First Responders.

First responders, such as paramedics and firefighters, encounter duty-related traumatic exposures, which can lead to post-traumatic stress (PTS). Although social support protects against PTS, we know little about how first responders' families, spouses/partners, friends, and care-partners (i.e., 'trusted others') provide social support. This narrative review explores support behaviors, coping strategies, and resources trusted others use to support first responders. A structured literature search yielded 24 articles. We used House's (1981) conceptual framework to inform our analysis. We identified three main themes: providing support, finding support, and support needs. Additionally, we describe trusted others' self-reported preparedness, coping strategies, and barriers to providing social support. We found that trusted others provided different types of support: (a) emotional (fostering a safe space, giving autonomy over recovery, facilitating coping mechanisms, prioritizing first responders' emotional needs); (b) instrumental (prioritizing first responders' practical needs, handling household tasks, supporting recovery); (c) appraisal (active monitoring, verbal reassurance, positive reframing), and (d) informational (seeking informal learning). In their role, trusted others sought formal (organizational) and informal (peer and personal) support and resources, alongside intrapersonal and interpersonal coping strategies. Identified barriers include inadequate communication skills, maladaptive coping, and disempowering beliefs. Thus, we offer practical, treatment, and social support recommendations.

Effects of Longitudinal Coaching on Relationships and Feedback Processes in Pediatric Subspecialty Fellowships-An Interpretive Description Study.

Background: Coaching in graduate medical education provides a facilitative approach to feedback as well as opportunities for residents and fellows to engage with feedback and develop individualized improvement goals. Objective: To explore the roles and actions of successful coaches in longitudinal coaching relationships and how they enable feedback processes. Methods: Using interpretive description methodology, we performed semi-structured interviews with pediatrics fellows (n=11), faculty coaches (n=9), and program directors (n=2) from 2 pediatric subspecialty fellowship training programs at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Both training programs had previously implemented longitudinal clinical coaching programs. Interview questions aimed to explore the roles and impacts of coaches within a longitudinal coaching program. Interviews took place in 2019 and 2020. Results: We identified 4 major actions to the coaching role in longitudinal coaching relationships: (1) establish the coach-fellow relationship; (2) prepare for the coaching conversation; (3) facilitate feedback dialogue; and (4) serve as the go-to person to raise uncomfortable issues. Additionally, nearly all participants expressed support for a longitudinal coaching program to support fellows' growth and development of personalized learning goals. Conclusions: By fulfilling these 4 key aspects to the coaching role, coaches in longitudinal relationships with coachees enable feedback processes.

Overextending: A Qualitative Study of Trainees Learning at the Edge of Evolving Expertise.

Background: The challenge of graduate medical education is to prepare physicians for unsupervised practice while ensuring patient safety. Current approaches may inadequately prepare physicians due to limited opportunities for autonomy. Recent work on how trainees gain autonomy shows that they actively influence their supervisors' entrustment decisions. If program directors more clearly understand how trainees experience increasing independence, they may better sensitize trainees to the deliberations they will face during patient care. Objective: The authors sought to explore how trainees experience lessening supervision as their clinical training advances. Methods: Using constructivist grounded theory, the authors recruited trainees from various specialties and training levels via email and conducted 17 semi-structured interviews from 2019 to 2020 to solicit clinical experiences during which their perceived autonomy changed. Through constant comparison and iterative analysis, key themes and conceptual relationships were identified. Results: Seventeen trainees from 4 specialties described novel clinical situations that required "overextending," or going beyond their perceived edge of evolving expertise. This move represented a spectrum based on perceived locus of control, from deliberate overextending driven by trainees, to forced overextending driven by external factors. Trainee judgments about whether or not to overextend were distilled into key questions: (1) Can I do it? (2) Must I do it? (3) Do I want to do it? and (4) Is it safe to do it? More advanced trainees posed a fifth question: (5) Am I missing something? Conclusions: Decisions to move into the realm of uncertainty about capabilities carried weight for trainees. In making deliberative judgments about overextending, they attempted to balance training needs, capability, urgency, and patient safety.